


You Were All Robin

by thefirstneonphoenix



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Dick's the only one who actually talks in this, Gen, Listening without interrupting, but the others are in the room, like true siblings, that I'm sure exist somewhere, the polite ones, y'know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28640733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefirstneonphoenix/pseuds/thefirstneonphoenix
Summary: Dick talks to each of them about being Robin.(I didn't include Duke because he doesn't want to be considered a Robin; I didn't include Carrie because I wasn't sure how to fit her)
Relationships: The Robins - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	You Were All Robin

**Author's Note:**

> Someone sent me a prompt and I was meaning to write it tonight, but I haven't been able to get the characters right. So I ended up writing this.

It wasn’t a new fight. It wasn’t even a surprising one, considering how Bruce had pitted them all against each other from the start. But Dick was so, so  _ tired. _ Was it too much to ask, for everyone in his family to just love each other? To not need to justify their place? Apparently. And apparently it was his fault that they all fell short of being worthy. 

“So. Here’s what I’m hearing. You were all Robin. You all chose to wear  _ my _ costume and  _ my _ name, and you’re pissed that people compared you to me? Seriously? I understand that you were children who didn’t quite know what you were getting into, but it’s to be expected that you were held to my reputation. Everywhere you went, the reputation that  _ I _ built opened doors for you. It’s only fair that anyone who met you expected you to be just as good as me, if not better.”

He turned to Jason. “I never wanted Robin to be a legacy. Even after I realized I couldn’t be both Robin and my own man, I never wanted anyone else to wear it. It’s representative of a dark and twisted part of my youth, one that no one else should have had to carry. There is no way that I can view Robin as anything but that. And because of that I didn’t choose to give it to you. Bruce did. Without informing me. And I was mad at him for that. I’m sorry that any of that leaked across into our relationship. I was a teenager. I didn’t know any better. And I didn’t know how to articulate that to you, when you were always so happy to be Robin. I’m sorry I didn’t save you. I didn’t realize I’d needed to.

You think, you always did think, I now realize, that you need to surpass me to gain Bruce’s love, but love that must be earned isn’t really love. You have always been worthy of his love. Of anyone’s love. It’s just a matter of whether or not we can find our way across this divide that we have built.”

He turned to Tim. “You’re upset that you’re still stuck in my shadow, but you’re still wearing my name. You came to me, years ago, with so much determination to be Robin, because you thought that Batman needed it. I didn’t want you to be Robin. Jason had been enough as it was, and the fact that he had just died for being Robin made it all the worse. I couldn’t not try to save you from his fate, or worse. So I made sure that you were trained, as well as I could. What Bruce couldn’t teach you, or wouldn’t, I did. I tried to give you any chance I could at making it out the other side. Some days I’m not sure I succeeded. 

You tried to save Batman by being Robin, but Tim, Robin isn’t what saved him, your determination did that. And yet you haven’t realized that. Drake, as cringy as it was, was a start. You are already all you need to be. You just need to realize it.”

He turned to Stephanie. “You had the shortest time as Robin, and probably the worst. I never even got a chance to meet you during that period. I regret that often. But I know you now, and I can only imagine what you were like as Robin, or what you could have been. Bruce was horrible to you. You did nothing to deserve the storminess of a man who refuses to recognize his own failings. But he did not make you who you are. You were already in the game long before you became Robin, and him trying to make you be somebody you will never be was so very beyond wrong that I can’t begin to articulate the number of issues there were. I never wanted you to be Robin. But you were, and you have made that a piece of your history, for better or for worse. Everything you have ever done, you have done because you chose to do it. And you have done it beautifully.

I am confident that you, if no one else is able to, will not live your life as if you are trapped under my shadow, but standing firmly in your own spotlight.”

He turned to Damian. “I gave you Robin, but I didn’t want you to be it. You came to us unsure of your place, quite aware of the divide between this new world that you had been thrust into, and the one of your childhood. When Bruce died, the only reason for you to be considered a part of this pathetic excuse for a family died with him. You’ve spent so much time asserting you’re right as the blood son, not out of arrogance, but because for a while, it was all you had. I gave you Robin so that you could wear my legacy and be recognized as one of us. I think that it’s the only good thing that’s ever come of my identity becoming a mantle. I gave it to you so that you would have security, so that you could realise that you were accepted, even if you weren’t fully of us. And you have grown so much under it. I’m proud of you. I’m proud of everything you have accomplished since you came to us.

But Robin is not the end of you. You will one day be something that is so much more than a legacy, and I hope that everyone else can see it. You are who you choose to become.”

He turned to look at his own reflection in the window. “You say that the time you spent as Robin was the best time of your life. And maybe it was. I can’t take that from you. But I wish it wasn’t. I wish you could have had childhoods, ones that weren’t fraught with horror and despair. I just wanted to help people. That’s all I ever wanted for a very long time. That’s all I’ve tried to do for a very long time. But every time another child takes on the ‘mantle’ that Robin now is, I can’t help but feel that I’ve done the exact opposite of help you.”

He turned to face the room as a whole. “Regardless, what I think doesn’t matter. What matters is this: You were all Robin. What are you gonna do with it?”

**Author's Note:**

> So that was 98% rambling. I was thinking about how Robin was the identity that Dick created, and that the rest of them could never surpass him until they stepped out from under that and built themselves. It didn't end up being exactly about that, but close enough. If you had thoughts on anything I got wrong or could have done better, please let me know. I'm always eager to learn new things.


End file.
